Low-cost private schools reject new registration rules

Islamabad

Islamabad’s low-cost private schools on Thursday announced they wouldn't register themselves with their regulator until controversial clauses were withdrawn from the new registration and fee rules.

The watchdog for private education in the federal capital, PEIRA, which is overseen by the Capital Administration and Development Division, had enforced the Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Fee Determination) Rules 2016 of late and warned private schools against violating them.

Private Schools Network President Dr. Afzal Babur along with other office-bearers of the grouping told reporters here that the new PEIRA rules on registration and fee were unacceptable to private schools.

He said many clauses of the Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Fee Determination) Rules 2016 went against the cause of education in Islamabad and therefore, they should be withdrawn forthwith.

“We would neither register ourselves with the PEIRA under new rules nor will we renew our registrations. The introduction of new rules is a bid to drive us to the wall. We won’t let this happen and will offer resistance until the rules are freed from objectionable clauses,” he said.

Dr. Afzal Babur said the PEIRA had miserably failed to deliver the goods.

He said private schools had been offering quality education to the children in those Islamabad areas, where the government hadn’t set up a single school in the last 20 years, but ironically, the PEIRA was bent on harming them instead of acknowledging their valuable contributions to the cause of education.

He said the PEIRA restructuring was direly needed to ensure provision of quality education to all the children living in Islamabad Capital Territory.